OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Reduces Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd decreased its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 140,879 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 24,514 shares during the period. Ecolab comprises approximately 1.0% of OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $35,971,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 32.7% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $602,000 after buying an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 15.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after buying an additional 855 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 84.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,098,000 after buying an additional 6,137 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,171,000 after buying an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 19.1% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,895,000 after acquiring an additional 3,393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecolab news, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,041 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,250. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,408,775,055.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Victoria Reich sold 393 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,010,250. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 478,355 shares of company stock worth $117,922,965 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ecolab from $228.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ecolab from $271.00 to $279.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group cut Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.20.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock opened at $250.56 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $252.26 and a 200-day moving average of $243.27. The firm has a market cap of $70.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $177.16 and a 1-year high of $262.61.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 22.12%. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.54 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Company Profile

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.